Tropea red onion

Oignon rouge de Tropea

What it is

Grown on a narrow strip of Calabrian coast and plaited into trecce for market, it is low enough in sulphur to be eaten raw by the slice - Calabria also turns it into jam and into ice cream. Its IGP fixes both the strip of coast and the shape of the bulb.

In the kitchen

It needs no soaking for a raw salad, unlike a standard red onion. Roasted whole in its skin at 180 °C for forty-five minutes it collapses to something close to jam - split it and eat it with a spoon.

Goes with

Olive oil Tomato Anchovy Red wine vinegar Taggiasca olive Tuna Basil Pecorino Romano

Same species

Arleux smoked garlic Banana shallot Black garlic Calçot Cévennes sweet onion Chives

In season alongside

Prickly pear Jackfruit Nashi pear Bergeron apricot Acacia honey Ajvar

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